Co-op Bank 2020 AGM: The Co-operative Bank Group has held its 12th Annual General Meeting (AGM). The general meeting was held virtually in a year when the coronavirus pandemic has digitized annual general meeting. During the virtual AGM held on October 2020, shareholders of the bank ratified a dividend of Sh. 1.00 per share. This was the same level of dividend that was paid out and ratified in the previous 2018 financial year.
Following the regulatory guidance by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), year 2019 dividend amounting to a total cash payment of Sh 5.9 Billion was paid out in April this year. “The payment represented a timely injection of liquidity to shareholders and notably the 15 million-member Co-operative Movement to mitigate the economic ravages of the pandemic,” Co-op Bank said in a statement. Co-op Holdings Co-operative Society, the strategic shareholder with a 64.5 per cent stake received a dividend of Sh. 3.79 billion.
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The bank has maintained a solid dividend track record on the back of sustained profitability over the years. During the financial year 2019, Co-op Bank recorded improved performance that saw the bank report a profit before tax of Sh 20.7 billion. This represented a 14 per cent increase from the Sh. 18.2 billion that was posted in the financial year 2018, and against a backdrop of a challenging operating environment.
Shareholders in the AGM were informed on the measures the bank has been undertaking to implement proactive enterprise risk management initiatives to ensure uninterrupted business operations. “A key activity in this entails engaging customers to support them through this period by re-aligning the servicing of facilities, funding and transactional needs. In total, Sh. 39.2 billion in loans had been restructured as at the end of June this year, to support customers on the Covid-19 pandemic,” the bank said in a statement.
During the Co-op Bank 2020 AGM, shareholders ratified the re-election of Messrs Wilfred Ongoro, Lawrence Karissa and Margaret Karangatha to the Co-op Bank Board for another term of three years, and also ratified the election of Mrs. Weda Welton as a director. The virtual AGM also ratified the acquisition of 90 per cent shareholding by Co-op Bank in Jamii Bora Bank (now trading as Kingdom Bank).